Philly

We love Philly.  We were there last week for the Harry Potter event and to visit the Eastern State Penitentiary. 

We have fond memories of Philly.  We love the Mummer's Parade on New Years Day.  We want to go again. We did it a few years ago when it was 5 degrees and windy and it was still fun.  We also love Philly's art museums and the City Hall courtyard Kris Kringle Mart and let's not forget the gluhvein in December.  

So we went to Philly with our daughter and son-in-law to attend the Harry Potter event as a celebration for our daughter's birthday.  We needed no convincing to join them.  What's not to like in a birthday celebration or a trip to Philly?  

Our daughter also wanted to tour the Eastern State Penitentiary.  Like me, she has diverse interests.  Philly is a nice, walkable city so we walked from the Harry Potter event to the penitentiary and back.  We had lunch at Jack's Firehouse Pub right across the street from Eastern State Penitentiary.  It was a fun place with decent service, food, and drink.  Atmosphere is A+.  

Though we visited the Harry Potter event first, I'll start with the penitentiary.  It presented awesome photo opportunities.  We love old buildings, peeling paint, old brick and metal and cement, imagining past events and lives lived.  This old building held a lot of suffering.  

I recall Bryan Stevenson's quotes originating from his Alabama African American prisoner justice work and the resulting book and documentary, Just Mercy : 

"Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done."

"The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated and the condemned. " 

"The opposite of poverty is not wealth.  The opposite of poverty is justice."

The last quote tells a lot about prisons, I think.  It's poor people, the marginalized people, overwhelmingly, who end up in prison.  

So even though I loved the old building, I took the time to bear witness to the old bones of this structure and reflect also on the human bones it held by force inside.

This was the medical wing of the hospital.  I lead with it to honor
Bryan Stevenson's work to be merciful and I hope this medical wing
employed staff who were in fact merciful and not predatory.

This room was staged to show what a cell might have looked like
on a good day.  The door on the far side led to an outdoor walking area. 

Below are pictures of what the cells mostly look like today. 

And here are some pictures of the hallways and other views of the grounds. 

Eastern State Penitentiary was built like a large spider with the heart in the center 
legs spread out housing cell blocks with skylights.

Eastern State Penitentiary was meant to be the first true penitentiary, going to the root of the word to penitence. Hmmmm.... 

So on to Harry Potter.

I love a good dome ceiling but it has nothing to do with Harry Potter except
it's in the building where the Harry Potter event is hosted.  But I bet we could come 
up with a good Harry Potter connection if we gave it some thought. 

Here's Andrea in Hagrid's hovel.

My favorite part of the Harry Potter event was seeing several of the costumes as well as the projection of movie views on opposite walls in some parts of the event.  The attempt was to make you feel like you were there.  It didn't quite succeed but I appreciated the effort and effect. 

The end.  

St Louis

 

Have you visited St. Louis?  Have you gone up in the Arch? Don't people always ask if you went up in the arch when you tell them you were in St. Louis?  How can you go to St. Louis and not go up inside the arch?  If you are spontaneous, in other words, one who doesn't plan to the nth degree, you may not be able to get a chance to go up in the arch if you are just visiting St. Louis. Reservations are now required. We went up a few years ago when visiting St. Louis but I think we just showed up and went up.  No planning ahead.  Spontaneity is our thing.  But with that, you sometimes miss out. Our timing was not in synch with the park service schedule for going up this time.  And we were tight on time so we couldn't make reservations later. Not a problem, really, though I wished our daughter and son-in-law could have gone up in the arch.

The arch is magnificent, true, and quite the feat of engineering, but I love trains and this visit we focused on the old Union Station which is now an amazing Hilton Hotel with restaurants, a pool, the St. Louis Aquarium, a ferris wheel, light shows and fountains in a pool... It's beautiful and makes for great pictures.  It's a place we would not have stayed at if not for being with our kids.  Too pricey.  Bougie.  But I'm glad we had a chance to stay.  I love trains and this place is awesome. 

The old building is magnificent. And this picture doesn't capture 
the enormity of it.

Union Station in St. Louis was built in the late 1800's.  It opened in 1894 and for a time was the largest and busiest in the world and the train shed had the largest roof in the world. It was expanded in 1903 to prepare for the 1904 World's Fair. It saw it's busiest time in the 1940's. The last Amtrak train pulled out in 1978 and now is located in a non-descript building a block or so away.  But the old St. Louis Union Station is one of the largest of historic facilities in the US that has been successfully reengineered for a different purpose. It's been an Omni, Hyatt and Marriott and Doubletree before becoming a Hilton. Let's hope it continues to be something.

Looking up over the main entrance.

Inside the Grand Hall which now has dining and a long bar along the wall.

The light show on the ceiling of the grand hall changes on a schedule.  
I love how art is changing with technology and merging with entertainment. 
I've always loved functional art.

A large model train and village set occupies a large space on one side of the gift shop.

The train shed with the ferris wheel just outside, the pool reflecting
light in the foreground and Landry's Seafood restaurant in the center.

The train shed holds many things to include this small cafe with
ice cream, candy, burgers, and yes, booze.

Me lounging, literally, in the hallway outside the bar/restaurant
while we waited to be seated for breakfast.   

We did a nice long walk around the National Park area paths bordering the arch and walked quite a bit of the downtown area.  It was a pretty hot and muggy day.  We were soaked with sweat but enjoying ourselves.  

This is the Lewis and Clark sculpture along the Mississippi near the arch. 
Included in the picture is Seaman, their Newfie that made the entire trip, was stolen by Indians 
for a bit then reaquired by Lewis and Clark not long afterwards, involving some killing, if I recall.  

This is maybe my favorite picture of the arch.  

We walked back through downtown and had a drink at a pizza place that had games galore at each of the tables.  It was midafternoon so the place was quiet except for a couple tables.  We sat at the bar and conversed with the employees and a couple patrons.  If we go back we will sample their pizza.

I love the murals on this building.  From a distance you can't tell what is a mural and what is not.  I even thought the windows were all painted on.  Bring it on people.  Bring on the murals.  Give us more art. 

And back to the train station.

Later before we took our daughter and son-in-law to the airport we visited the Lewis and Clark Confluence Tower in Hartford, Illinois. It is 150 feet high and you can ride the elevator up and see the rivers and one of the largest refinery in the US.  It is near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, the two longest rivers in North America. The confluence of the Illinois River is close, as well.  We'd love to boat the Illinois to/from Chicago. 

It was a nice trip.  I say all these things about St. Louis but the trip really was to see my mother in Iowa at the nursing home where she lives with Lewy Body Dementia and strokes and just plane old, frail bones. She had just had a fall and had broken a clavicle.  It actually happened after we'd set the dates to go see her.  So the timing worked out.  She had surgery on her clavicle a couple of days after we left.  We drove to St. Louis to be there to pick up our daughter and son-in-law who were flying in from Baltimore.  They didn't have enough time for the drive and St. Louis offered lots of flights in case of cancellations or weather events. The time spent driving with them from St. Louis to Iowa and back was a nice to to just chat and catch up.  We also visited my sister-s grave and my father and grandparents' graves after we saw my mom.  Visiting the graves is part of Dave's and my pattern when we go to Iowa to see my mom.  We leave roses at each of the graves and I say their names.  I miss my dad.  I miss my sister, too, but am going through a phase of really missing my dad.  And appreciating him.  I had good parents.  I have a good mom.  I'm glad she is doing ok.  She isn't angry, she isn't in pain, she isn't lonely.  That is a lot better than many older people get the last few years of their lives.  And let's not forget and be ungrateful for all the years we were lucky enough to have our loved ones.